TARA21

(sold)

SIGNE EMDAL

august 2022
Icelandic wool, Swedish cotton warp
75 x 75 x 25 cm
touch tech
on show at PAD London, October 2022
WINNER OF BEST CONTEMPORARY ARTWORK PAD LONDON 2022

/Text by Galerie Maria Wettergren

”In a time where belief systems, perceptions and colors are rapidly changing around the world, we need compassion, togetherness and wisdom to hold us together.”

In this sense, Emdal created ‘Tara 21’ (2022) as a magic portal to a life of compassionate togetherness, embracing the multitude of complex layers of life today, with each of its individual timelines flowing organically towards each other. The vibrant layers of fine Icelandic unspun wool equally represent today’s younger generations, striving to build a new world – a more feminine world – of subtle, sensitive and nuanced values.

For this important new work, Signe Emdal applied her signature fusion technique called TOUCH. This technique is a delicate merge of Icelandic unspun wool fibers and Turkish carpet knots transformed into subtle layers of fur-like shades of poetry. Indeed, Emdal characterizes herself as a textile composer, transforming emotions and ambiances into tangible constructions in textile. Her unique works transcend their materiality in reference to historic objects, nature, spaces and cultural textile heritage. Her process is both a marriage of traditional cultures and new innovative textile structures that she develops herself.

The nomadic journey of textile culture and women’s craft that emerges from different cultures and landscapes and migrates over centuries from country to country is characteristic of Emdal’s practice. Each new work invites a new technique, which takes its departure from the previous one. The individual processes that she creates are called “Fusion Techniques”.

Signe Emdal trained at the Designskolen in Kolding, Denmark, where she specialized in Jacquard knitting techniques and conceptual structures. Emdal has exhibited internationally with notable exhibitions including the National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark; Gallery Direktorenhaus, Berlin, Germany; National Museum of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland; and most recently at the Homo Faber exhibition “Crafting a More Human Future” (2022) at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, Italy.